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Still gotta lite a fire

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peacecountry

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Had a snow storm just a skiff though cold wind. just lite a fire in the wood stove. about half done calving . good luck so far except for one group that just started they bin due for about amonth just getting calves now.wondering if the bull has trickamitis i dont know how to spell but i heard it makkes them late. hope everybody is having good luck calving and is liting fire in the branding pen not in the house. :lol:
 
Was it your own home grown bull or a bought used bull. Do you buy alot of replacemen cows?

I doubt it ,as trich usually causes them to abort, not resorb the embryo's and your cows would be open or really really late. Do you preg check ?

Blizzard here too, what a bloody mess out there. Thank goodness calves have been on the ground for a while now.

Good luck with the rest of calving, may you have healthy babies born to good moms.. :)
 
How old was the bull we had one that was basically shooting duds at semen check time he was 10 at the time. The guy doing the testing said alot of bull's that don't clean their own pipes might be full of stale dead semen and after a little use things got back on track.Were down to a dozen left they may get walking shoe's if they get to late.
 
The bull was 4 when i got him last year . he had a good semen test last year and the cows he was with were cycling like crazy he was in a small pasture with mostly fescue for grass . he only had 20 cows in his group. thanks for the replies.
 
Faster horses said:
You bought a used bull????????????? :shock:
That's a real NO-NO in my book.
Click to expand...

In my book that would completely depend on how well you know the sellers herd.
 
Trich can be an issue with used bulls and it is actually illegal in many states to buy an untested used bull to go back to the country. In fact some states are even requiring VIRGIN bulls over 12 months be tested. There is also Lepto.
 
TEST every bull! Even virgin bulls are required to be Trich tested out here and have the tag in thier ear to prove it. My experience with trich is that they abort. A guy who winters on the desert down the valley a way's had 400 open thanks to trich. :???: Just about put him under. I wonder if your bull might be running out of bullets. Good luck.
 
What was your grass/moisture/weather like last year? We are having some up here that besides having a high number of cows coming in open- had cows aborting during the winter/spring - and have a whole lot of late calving cows.....
They had all the Vets in- State Lab- did every test known to man on the cows/calves, feed, water, etc-- and can find nothing....

But these cattle ran in some of the roughest pasture areas in the area (70 acres to a pair in a good year) - and about June was the last rain we got last year- which made the cows have to travel a long ways to find water and grass...Calves were weaned early- about 60 lbs light--Cows were on good pasture/hay from about November on- but like the owners said- they think they were just stressed too hard- put out too much to the calves they had- and its the stress catching up on them....
 
It is easy to understand the theory behind testing regulations but testing virgin bulls across the board is fairly ridiculous. The theory is that a young bull could of been exposed to Trich before he was weaned. There is zero data about what the incidence of this could be. So the regulations conclude your herd has Trich until you prove otherwise on a individual bull basis. My vet works with seedstock herds and also commercial herds on grazing associations and National Grasslands where Trich occasionally pops up. His view of testing virgin bulls for Trich is that the chances are so low that it is beyond stupid to have to do it.
 
Testing of bulls is done for more than just testing for Trich.

And buying a used bull opens the door for many things, like
Lepto that has already been mentioned. It's a dangerous practice.

It doesn't sound like this is trich, perhaps Vibrio or Lepto
that caused these cows to be late.

I hope they all calve!! They probably need vaccinated for
Vibrio/Lepto if they aren't already. GOOD LUCK!
 
Angus 62 said:
It is easy to understand the theory behind testing regulations but testing virgin bulls across the board is fairly ridiculous. The theory is that a young bull could of been exposed to Trich before he was weaned. There is zero data about what the incidence of this could be. So the regulations conclude your herd has Trich until you prove otherwise on a individual bull basis. My vet works with seedstock herds and also commercial herds on grazing associations and National Grasslands where Trich occasionally pops up. His view of testing virgin bulls for Trich is that the chances are so low that it is beyond stupid to have to do it.
Click to expand...

Not sure what to make of being called beyond stupid and ridiculous in only one post! :lol: :lol: :lol: (I know/hope you mean the state's regulations) :wink: But back to the topic, If you do test yearling bulls, it is just one more safegaurd to keep trich away.
 
Talking about testing for Trich in virgin bulls. The new CO rules require that a bull [12 months and older] be tested within 30 days of sale or change of possession for interstate movement of bulls. You will no longer be able to go to a neighboring state [or any other state] buy a yearling bull and haul him home, as has been done forever. That is stupid. Again there is zero data on the incidence of Trich in such bulls. The State Vets office THINKS it may happen. What a great reason to cost producers lots of money. It was suggested that some sort of study be done to assess the risk. But guess what? There is no state money available so producers get to spend their money without any indication of whether it is a waste of money or not. Typical of bureaucrats protecting their job.
 
We are required to trich test our old bulls before they can go to the forest. One permittee tries to get by running born again virgin bulls :roll:.

Another ranch bordering our permit takes in pasture cattle from all over, and heaven only knows what kind of crap may get dragged in. Those bulls don't stay home too well either. It wouldn't be as bad if the cattle were native, and a person knew what they were dealing with. If we have a bull who likes to go visit the neighbor, he gets sold. Not always the policy with others though.

That's why we try to breed everything up at home before we haul up, vaccinate well, and hope for the best :) .

Soap has the right idea :wink:
 
With the drought we had last summer PC ,anything can happen.
My bulls breed the herd or most of the herd while they are still fed hay, and in a smaller area, but talking to my neighbors their cows are a little later this year as well and they were pasture bred.


I also agree that if you know the herd the bull is out of and especially if it is a closed herd there should be no problems buying a used bull.
 
Thanks everybody for the great advice. i know better than to buy a used bull i just was trieing to cut corners and it was a closed herd.the pasture was very poor and dry and was in a elk fence so it got overgrazed more than my average pastures. it just seemes weird that it seems like they missed one cycle almost to the day.
 

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